(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – Officials with the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office report that a Nebraska man was sentenced today (April 6, 2023) to an indeterminate term of incarceration not to exceed 50 years, after he pleaded guilty to 2nd degree murder in the 1983 killing of Firozeh Dehghanpour.

At the time she disappeared, Dehghanpour was a 27 year-old University of Nebraska at Omaha student. She was found deceased in Pottawattamie County in August, 1983. In 2021, DNA testing of evidence recovered at the scene identified Bud Leroy Christensen, a registered sex offender, as a possible suspect. He was subsequently arrested in May 2021 in Omaha, Nebraska.

Sergeant James Doty with the Pott. County Sheriff’s Department led the renewed investigation after receiving a tip in late 2020. Sheriff’s Office investigators followed-up on leads, and Crime Scene Technician Hadley Kava examined evidence collected nearly four decades earlier. After the 2021 arrest, Kava said, “Let Firozeh’s case be an example that it’s never too late to seek justice.”